Transcript:

Mayor Doherty: Thank you all very much, and for some of our out-of-town guests welcome to Belmar. This is the sixth time that Governor Christie has come to Belmar since Hurricane Sandy, and while he can’t say it publicly, we all know that Belmar is Governor Chris Christie’s favorite town, right? With no further ado let’s give a very warm Belmar, Jersey Shore welcome to our governor, the Governor of the State of New Jersey, Chris Christie.

Governor Christie: The first place that I came after Sandy was Belmar and I remember landing the helicopter right near the beach and being greeted by a number of residents and first and foremost by the Mayor. One of the first things he said to me was, “We’re ready to work with you. We need help.” And at that moment it didn’t matter to me or to Matt that I’m a Republican and he’s a Democrat. It didn’t matter whether we had been on the same side of issues before. What mattered was we had a town that had been badly, badly damaged. People who were distraught and some of the most iconic pictures of me in that damn fleece consoling people, come from right here. So no matter whether mayors in these individual towns that have been affected are Republicans or Democrats, whether they agree with me on every issue or not, they deserve to be acknowledged when they put the interests of their citizens first before anything else. And I will say this every time I’m asked and even now when I wasn’t, that’s the kind of mayor that Matt Doherty is and has been and he deserves great credit. Matt, thank you.